Carpark Improvements

For many years the car park located at the bottom of the grounds has presented a less than welcoming site to arriving yogis. As we open up to the post-COVID environment the Centre will present a brighter, more pleasant entry with much needed work underway to improve the car park experience. We are calling for funds to meet the costs with a target of $7000.

During COVID, a good deal of work by maintenance team Don Elliot and Dan Devananda has kept the grounds looking good. Restrictions have not prevented a program of repair and improvement and recently an aluminium shed on a new slab, to house the ride-on mower and a lean-to work extension have been constructed.

Dan Divananda

Gavin Cusack is managing the improvement effort and this first week of December we have a new concrete carpark driveway costing $4500 for the excavating and concreting.  

Over weeks and months a gardening group has been clearing weeds in the overgrown area near the bottom boundary, removing cotoneaster, privet, holly, ivy and pittosporum. The cleared areas present an opportunity to address a long-standing shortage of suitable walking tracks away from the hall.  New terraced walking paths will be constructed, offering forested seclusion beneath the towering pines.  The clearing and terracing carried out below the dhamma hall will open up a more pleasant prospect.

Don Elliot and resident caretaker Mark Hudson

The new work will also include the construction of a fence running parallel to the road and enclosing the car park at a cost of $1500 for materials with labour provided by John Orme.

Allowing for additional landscaping materials ($500) and clearance of accumulated matter under the hall ($500), the total cost of these improvements will be some $7000.

We would greatly appreciate any contribution you can make to this project.

If you are interested in joining the gardening group please provide your contact details and someone will be in touch.